Many business schools strive for their students to enter high paying corporate jobs to do both retain their prestigious reputation and to achieve higher rankings with various publications. However, Saïd Business School’s dean argues in an article at Bloombergs that MBA programmes should also aim to steer students towards futures that benefit the world at large.

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With a growing number of attractive courses on offer, Europe is becoming one of the top destinations for MBA students from all over the world. The English-language eBook “MBA in Europe” issued by MBA CHANNEL in co-operation with the career platform Jobguide, analyses trends on the European MBA market and provides an overview of the market.

What do business students really want from the future? To find out more about their career expectations and professional dream jobs, market researcher Trendence asked business students at 762 universities and business schools in 24 European countries. More than 96,400 answered. The most striking result of this survey is obviously the fallout from the financial crisis: 55.8 per cent of all business students in Europe are worried about their future careers. Hopeful applicants expect to send out an average of 34 resumés to land a first job and suppose the search might take them close to five months.

White men still overwhelmingly dominate corporate boards. In the Fortune 100, between 2004 and 2010, white men increased their presence, adding 32 corporate board seats. Women did not see an appreciable increase in their share of board seats, reports Catalyst, a lobby organisation for diversity.

Is Europe the right continent for an MBA education? Definitely, says Santiago Iñiguez de Onzoño, dean of the Spanish IE Business School. MBA Channel spoke with the Spanish management expert about Europe’s challenges, global entrepreneurship and online learning.

Companies like Facebook, Google and Zynga are so hungry for the best talent that they are buying start-ups to get their founders on board. Some technology blogs call the move “being acqhired.” The companies doing the buying say it is a talent acquisition, and it typically comes with a price per head.

Brazil is next to Russia, India and China one of he growing BRIC countries and is seen as economically one of the most promising markets worldwide. Undoubtedly, there are plenty of differences between westernized customs and Brazilian culture, something that is not always easy to adjust to for business people from other parts of the world. For example, years of high inflation and currency crises have caused Brazilians to act more spontaneously and shy away from long-term planning.

A new app allows students to study for the GMAT test on the go. The Graduate Management Admission Council has released an application for iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad end of May. Students can download the app at iTunes for $4.99.

Investment banks are once again the top destination for student jobseekers. A survey of final-year students at 30 sought-after universities finds that among those already looking for jobs, investment banking is the most popular choice – with 8.5 per cent applying. Experts say that at least three banks are rumoured to be paying 50,000 pounds in starting salaries before bonuses. All of the banks were back on campus in the last twelve months, promoting themselves hard. Most of the best-known names of the City of London are recruiting at 2006-07 levels.

British executive search consultants are putting the finishing touches to a code of conduct to counter accusations that they are hindering women’s entry into boardrooms. The move was demanded by a government investigation into why the proportion of female non-executive directors in UK’s largest 100 publicly traded companies remains stubbornly at 12.5 per cent. If that percentage does not double by 2015 British companies face mandatory quotas such as those introduced in France this year.

Jobs are up and salaries, too. According to separate surveys of employers and graduates released by the Graduate Management Admission Council there is a “pronounced improvement in the job market for business school graduates,” said Gregg Schoenfeld, GMAC director of research and author of the graduates’ survey report. “Based on job offers, hiring is up in all industries, and more than half of the students who were looking for work had job offers two months before graduation. Last year, that figure was lower than one-third.”

Companies are more and more influencing executive business school programmes with their demands. Corporate clients – which pay around 1,000 US-Dollar per person per day for these programmes – want to measure their return on investment, writes the Financial Times.

MBA Channel talked to Professor Murali Chandrashekaran, the Academic Director for MBA programs of the Australian Graduate School of Management (AGSM),
about chances and challenges in training truly global managers.

What makes the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad – or briefly IIM-A - the subcontinents’ first business school? The Financial Times ranks IIM-A as the highest placed newcomer in its 2011 global ranking and comments: “Impressive salary data, both in terms of the average three years after graduation (174,440 US dollar) and increase in earnings following the MBA (152 per cent), enabled it to debut at number eleven. These data are consistent with another key ranking metric – IIMA alumni top the list for career progression, a measure that compares students’ job titles before and three years after completing their MBA.”

MBA & Company was founded two years ago by a group of MBA graduates who understood that during the economic downturn companies did not have the funds available to use expensive consultancies. It has evolved into a means for companies to gain access to talent in a manner that reflects their needs. Today MBA & Company takes advantage of the surplus of top-tier talent from the world’s leading business schools who haven’t yet found their dream job by using a web site to match up grads with of companies that need consulting but don’t want to pay the premium that McKinsey, BCG and the other the big-name brands demand.

Social media has changed the world of the internet and amidst a new social e-culture, some companies have grasped these new marketing opportunities. However, there is still a lack of real strategy. Now, some top business schools have reacted and introduced new courses into their curriculum.

Canada, Bermuda and South Africa are the countries where it’s easiest to befriend locals, learn the language, fit into the new culture and integrate into the community, according to respondents to HSBC Bank International’s Expat Explorer survey.

There are about 2,500 business schools in India, with more emerging daily. Yet, while Indian business schools may be teaching great students, there is little evidence that the schools are creating innovative ideas through research, writes the Financial Times.

For many years the focus for many MBA students has been banking, finance and consulting. That may be shifting. If you ask prospective MBAs today what they expect from the business school experience and what they want to study you are in for a surprise. The study “Tomorrow’s MBA” suggests that entrepreneurship is the trend of the future.

A recent study by the Association of Business Schools that interviewed 476 prospective MBA students in 79 countries about their aspirations and expectations revealed a strong interest in entrepreneurship. The report called “Tomorrow’s MBA” shows that the salary increase after graduation is becoming less of a distinguishing issue between schools. Students are reacting to the downturn in corporate hiring in recent years and are looking at other career options. Whether they want control of their own careers in their own business or feel the need to manage change and a variety of projects in a large business, “entrepreneurship skills are increasingly valuable”, say the authors of the report. MBA-Channel asked Christos Kalantaridis, Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Bradford University School of Management if you can really train to become the next Richard Branson or Bill Gates.

Not long ago leading business schools regarded MBA admission consultants with suspicion. They would say students who could afford the extra help to correct essays or train for interviews and the GMAT test had an unfair advantage over those who couldn’t. In the last year however, the ice seemed to melt as a few MBA experts have observed lately.

China European International Business School (CEIBS) in the People’s Republic of China is the shooting star amongst Business Schools. Since February the school has a new dean with John A. Quelch, previously teaching in London and Harvard. Now it’s time to be in China, he says. MBA-Channel spoke to John Quelch about the impact of Asia on Business Schools and how he is going to turn CEIBS from a regional into a global brand.

“U.S. News” did it again and surveyed 437 MBA programs to create a ranking of top business schools. First comes Stanford’s Graduate School of Business, followed by Harvard Business School and placed third is the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Year on year the top ten saw only slight changes. The big news is there are a top 11 this year: Yale University’s School of Management cracked into the magazine’s top ten by drawing a tie with New York University’s Stern School (NYU) for tenth place. Yale was 11th last year, while NYU was ninth.

Part-time MBA programs are supposed to promote career development. Students are being trained to take on more responsibility and develop leadership skills. Part-time MBA programs are designed for managers already in the work place. But how is the return on investment? Is a part-time MBA worth the money and the time?